Henry Wilber Biography


	This biography appears on pages 634-635 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. I (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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	HENRY WILBER is one of those energetic and sturdy pioneers who 
have shown to the world the possibilities involved in the development 
of the agricultural resources of the great state of South Dakota, and 
he is today the owner of a finely improved and valuable farm in Bath 
township, Brown county, where he took up his abode more than a score of 
years ago. Mr. Wilber is a native of the fine old Wolverine state, 
having been born in Lapeer county, Michigan, on the 19th of November, 
1845, and being a son of Joel and Hannah Wilber. He was reared on the 
homestead farm and received a common school education, and in his youth 
he began working in the great lumber woods of his native state, 
continuing to be identified with this line of industry for a period of 
fifteen years, while for three years he held the position of foreman. 
For five years he followed the hazardous business of driving logs on 
Mill creek, becoming an expert in the management of the logs, which 
were thus floated down to the mills each spring. In the summer of 1880, 
in company with his brothers, Ira and Martin, Mr. Wilber came to the 
James river valley of Dakota, reaching their destination in May. On the 
3d of the following month each of them filed entry on homestead and 
tree claims, our subject securing two claims on section 6, Brown 
county. That same autumn he took up his residence on the place, upon 
which he erected a sod house and barn, of the type common to the early 
pioneer days. Lumber at that time here commanded about one hundred and 
fifty dollars per thousand feet, and few of the settlers felt inclined 
to make the necessary expenditure to secure the same, even if able to 
do so. In this township those who wintered here that year were few in 
number, including the subject and S. H. Cook, P. C. Cavanagh, two 
bachelor brothers named Lamb, and I. Chamberlain. Mr. Wilber continued 
to occupy his primitive sod house for three years, and in the meanwhile 
vigorously prosecuted the work of improving his farm and rendering it 
available for effective cultivation. At the expiration of the period 
noted he erected a small frame house, which is an integral portion of 
his present substantial and commodious residence, which was erected 
about five years ago, while the other permanent improvements are in 
harmony therewith. A tree claim which was originally a part of his home 
farm he has given to one of his sons, but added five other quarter 
sections to his holdings, one of which he has since given to another of 
his sons, so that he retains in his home farm a half section at the 
present time, while he also owns a quarter section one-half mile to the 
south and another one-half section on the James river, three miles 
distant, the last mentioned being utilized mainly for grazing and 
raising hay. In addition to raising large quantities of grain Mr. 
Wilber is also prominently interested in the raising of Hereford 
cattle, having at the present time about seventy-five head, 
thoroughbred and graded. He has raised ten thousand bushels of wheat in 
one year, and he now devotes about five hundred acres to this product 
and sixty-five acres to corn. He has been very successful in raising 
corn and pronounces this section as well adapted to the propagation of 
the same as is his native state of Michigan. For the past seven seasons 
Mr. Wilber has operated a threshing outfit and has found this 
enterprise likewise profitable. He is wide-awake and enterprising and 
is one of the model farmers of this section of the state. In politics 
he is a staunch Republican, and both he and his wife are members of the 
Methodist Episcopal church.  

	In Lapeer county, Michigan, on the 7th of May, 1866, Mr. Wilber 
was united in marriage to Miss Esther Clement, who was born in 
Massachusetts, whence she accompanied her parents to Michigan when she 
was a girl of thirteen years. Of the children of Mr. and Mrs. Wilber we 
enter the following brief record: Adel died at the age of four years; 
Lena died at the age of sixteen; Ruby died on the 24th of May, 1902, as 
the result of an operation for appendicitis, being in the bloom of 
gracious maidenhood, as she was nineteen years of age at the time; 
Hattie is the wife of Rev. W. O. Gram, pastor of the Methodist 
Episcopal church at Bath, this county; Frank, who married Lillian 
Rievert, is engaged in farming, his place being one-half mile distant 
from the old homestead; Frederick, who married Lizzie Schnase, is 
engaged in farming in this county and Estella and Clifford remain at 
the parental home.